Appreciate the Smoothies

No, not that kind of smoothie!! As we have now sunk our teeth into the new NBA season, talk over potential All-Star and MVP candidates is beginning to heat up, and all the usual suspects are at the top of the list. I encourage NBA fans to take a closer look at some slightly underrated players before filling out their All-Star ballots and throwing themselves behind an MVP candidate. There is a common thread among these players that makes them a little undervalued. They’re what I like to call “smooth” players. People know that these guys are good, but I don’t think they realize just how good they are. Fans today are enamored with highlight plays, and as a result the players who make those plays get elevated just a little bit more, while guys who do things the more conventional way are overlooked a bit. People are mesmerized by LeBron’s monster dunks, Dwight’s emphatic rejections, D-Wade’s magical circus shots, Kobe’s fadeaway jumpers over multiple defenders, and naturally put them at the top of list of the game’s elite. But there are other, less noticeable names that belong in that exclusive club as well.

Any conversation about the quietly great begins and ends with the Big Fundamental, Tim Duncan. Timmy D has subtly been the premiere post player of the last decade, the only big man left in the game who dominates on both ends of the floor. Obviously everyone knows he’s good, evidenced by him starting in the All Star Game every year, but I don’t think they appreciate how HISTORICALLY good he’s been. There’s a reason people like Charles Barkley (A pretty darn good power forward himself) call him the greatest power forward of all time. I named him my MVP of the 2000s over players like Kobe and Shaq. His unmatched banking prowess and shutdown interior defense go largely unnoticed. The reason why, as a Lakers fan, I am more worried about the Spurs than any other team in the league is that Duncan is the one player who can handle the Lakers front line. And he can do it by himself.

Another big man whose smooth game gets lost in the shuffle primarily because he plays with a highlight heavyweight is Pau Gasol. If you’ve never watched Gasol closely, trust me, you’re missing out. A couple of years ago I myself believed that Gasol was overrated and really wasn’t that good. Now after the All Star appearances, championship spotlight, and acting guest spots, I think he’s rather underrated (As a player, not an actor. Side Note: WHY would anyone want Pau Gasol to act in any role in which he does not play himself unless it was on a show aired in Spain??? He’s not popular enough in the States to attract a larger TV audience). He’s the perfect sidekick for Kobe. He does whatever the team needs, cares nothing for his stats, and has a wide range of skills he can use. From scoring efficiently with either hand in the post, to knocking down open mid-range jumpers, to hitting cutters in stride, to running the floor, to rebounding on both ends, to protecting the rim, Gasol does it all without needing the ball, or the spotlight, too much. And if he needs to, he can carry a team for stretches himself.

Sticking to bigs, a third who flies under the radar is Al Jefferson. While a lot of that has to do with him being stuck on a bad team in a small market, Jefferson was unheralded even during his time in Boston, though those were some bad teams too as people seem quick to forget. Jefferson may just be developing into the best low-post scorer in the game. He averaged 23 points per game a year ago on 50% shooting to go along with 11+ rebounds, yet failed to make the All Star team over a lesser player like David West. It’s a shame. Big Al can just flat out score on the block, with more post moves than any opponent can guard. He’s what Dwight Howard should have been on offense. For his sake, I hope he can get out of Minnesota, but first I hope he can get his proper recognition because I still don’t hear his name mentioned when people talk about the best big men in the league.

It’s not all about the big men though. Leading the smooth swingmen is my boy Brandon Roy. People really don’t know how good this young guy is. Last year John Hollinger wrote about how Roy is the seventh best player in the NBA, and he is not crazy. I’ve been big on Roy since his college days, but I knew he was the real deal after watching a game two years ago. It was a nationally televised contest against the Heat and Roy (At the time, in just his second season as a pro) was matched up on veteran superstar Dwyane Wade. Roy DOMINATED Wade. I mean, it wasn’t even close. He made Wade look like a scrub on defense. And what really shocked me was that Roy looked like he was moving in slow motion. Yet, one of the most athletic guards in the league couldn’t stay with him. His series of crossovers, changes of pace, fakes, and step-backs, all without breaking a sweat, had Wade scrambling to keep up. Roy can be the best player on the floor at any given time and I believe he is one of the few franchise players in the NBA.

If you had one possession to win the game, which player in the league would you want to have the ball? I’d be hard pressed to take anyone over Carmelo Anthony. He’s arguably the best pure scorer in the league. Obviously he came into the league with a lot of hype and is well-known throughout the nation, but I’m not sure people really appreciate his mastery of the art of scoring the basketball. There isn’t anyone under 7 feet tall who gets his points easier than Melo. The way he scores at will makes it look so easy. Now that he has an effective outside jumper and added three point range to his arsenal, there’s just no stopping his lethal combination of size, strength, quickness, and athleticism. It just seems like he expends half the energy of Kobe, LeBron, and Wade to score the same amount, and because of that people don’t put him in the same class of scorers as those guys. Time to put an end to that. And going back to that end-of-game possession; last season Melo shot 56.5% from the field, 58.3% from three, and got to the line more frequently than any other player in the league in the clutch. That was far better than Kobe, LeBron, or Wade. See why it’s hard not to take him there?

Another “smoothie” who’s among the game's greats is Joe Johnson. JJ rose out of obscurity in Boston to shine with the first fast-paced Suns team (Imagine if Phoenix decided to pay him), parlaying his breakout 2005 campaign into a big contract with Atlanta. Johnson has lived up to the billing, leading the young Hawks to back-to-back playoff appearances and their first postseason series win in a couple decades. He’s blossomed into a perennial All Star with his smooth game. He’s another one of those guys who looks like he’s moving slower than everyone else, yet gets to his spots and gets off that pretty jump shot. He’s also very calm handling the basketball and can make plays for his teammates. I believe he’s properly rated now, but people still tend to forget about him when discussing the top shooting guards in the NBA.

So what makes some players smooth and others not? Is there a common thread among them? I think it’s difficult to pinpoint a single factor, but one interesting thing to note is the career path of the players. A big difference between highlight reel players like say LeBron, Kobe, Wade, Howard, and Josh Smith and their smoother counterparts listed above is college experience. Examine those two lists. All the highlight guys except for Wade came straight out of high school. Meanwhile, all of the smooth guys (excluding Gasol who came from overseas where things are different) except for Al Jefferson attended college, two of them for the full four years. Could it be that playing college basketball teaches you more of the fundamentals of the game and makes you a better NBA player if you’re not a top-notch athlete? It’s tough to say for certain, but it is interesting to see the discrepancy. Whatever the reason is, just remember not to discount smooth players for making the game look so easy.